idnight. I had been dozing in the
saddle, with parched lips and throbbing temples, waiting for my comrade.
Head-quarters had been intending to move, without doing it, for four
hours, and he informed me that it was well to stay with the Commanding
General, as the Commanding General kept out of danger, and also kept in
provisions. I was sick and petulant, and finally quarrelled with my
friend. He told me, quietly, that I would regret my harshness when I
should be well again. I set off for White Oak, but repented at "Burnt
Chimneys," and turned back. In the misty dawn I saw the maimed still
lying on the ground, wrapped in relics of blankets, and in one of the
outhouses a grim embalmer stood amid a family of nude corpses. He dealt
with the bodies of high officers only; for, said he--

"I used to be glad to prepare private soldiers. They were wuth a five
dollar bill apiece. But, Lord bless you, a Colonel pays a hundred, and
a Brigadier-General two hundred. There's lots of them now, and I have
cut the acquaintance of everything below a Major. I might," he added,
"as a great favor, do a Captain, but he must pay a Major's price. I
insist upon that! Such windfalls don't come every day. There won't be
another such killing for a century."

A few horsemen of the escort loitered around head-quarters. All the
tents but one had been removed, and the staff crouched sleepily upon the
refuse straw. The rain began to drizzle at this time, and I unbuckled a
blanket to wrap about my shoulders. Several people were lying upon dry
places, here and there, and espying some planks a little remote, I tied
my horse to a peach-tree, and stretched myself languidly upon my back.
The bridal couch or the throne were never so soft as those knotty
planks, and the drops that fell upon my forehead seemed to cool my
fever.

I had passed into a sort of cognizant sleep when a harsh, loud, cruel
voice awakened me, and I seemed to see a great Polyphemus, stretching
his hands into the clouds, and gaping like an earthquake.

"Boy," I heard him say, to a slight figure, near at hand, "boy, what are
you standing there for? What in ---- do you want?"

"Nothing!"

"Take it, and go, ---- ---- you! Take it, and go!"

I peeped timorously from my place, and recognized the Provost-General of
the Grand Army. He had been sleeping upon a camp chest, and did not
appear to be refreshed thereby.

"I feel sulky as ----!" he said to an officer adjoining; "I feel ----
bad-